Blue Jays Take Control of Division Series With Four Home Runs

The Blue Jays’ Troy Tulowitzki, right, celebrated with Jose Bautista after hitting a two-run home run in the second inning.Credit
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

ARLINGTON, Tex. — Yu Darvish brought the Toronto Blue Jays to their knees on Friday at Globe Life Park. For a lineup of sluggers, that was part of the plan.

The Blue Jays swung hard against Darvish, the dominant right-hander for the Texas Rangers, in Game 2 of their American League division series. Two of Toronto’s first five hitters twisted themselves to the dirt, losing their balance with ferocious and futile hacks at Darvish’s fastball.

But soon enough, the big swings paid off. The Blue Jays battered Darvish for four home runs and headed to Toronto with a 5-3 victory and a two-games-to-none series lead. It was the first time in Darvish’s 102 major league starts that he had allowed so many homers.

Then, the Blue Jays lost the first two at home, won two in Texas, then won the clincher back at Rogers Centre. Now that the Rangers have lost twice here, their only hope is to follow a similar script.

“There’s no tomorrow for us,” the Rangers’ Adrian Beltre said. “We have to go over there and find a way to beat them. Not only that, but we will try to do what they did to us last year. They were down two, and we’re in the same situation.”

The Blue Jays will start Aaron Sanchez — whose 3.00 E.R.A. was the lowest in the A.L. — against the Rangers’ Colby Lewis on Sunday. Toronto has already battered Cole Hamels and Darvish for 11 earned runs in eight and a third innings.

Six Blue Jays have hit home runs against the Rangers, after Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion homered against Baltimore in the wild-card game.

“It’s very fun when everybody gets hot like we are right now,” Encarnacion said.

Troy Tulowitzki, Kevin Pillar, Ezequiel Carrera and Encarnacion homered off Darvish, the last a liner by Encarnacion down the left-field line. He said he did not expect it to clear the fence, but it did, and Darvish paid for another poorly located fastball.

Darvish tied a postseason record by allowing four home runs in a game; it had been done seven times before, most recently by Minnesota’s Rick Reed in a division series game against Oakland in 2002. All of Friday’s homers came off fastballs, and Darvish said later that his pitch selection could have been better.

Lucroy added: “We were trying to mix in some soft, but his fastball location was pretty erratic. Whenever that happens, guys are going to lean on you. They’re going to get a good pitch to hit sooner or later if you don’t consistently keep the ball down.”

The Rangers had chances against J. A. Happ and the Blue Jays’ bullpen. They left 13 runners on base, including two in each of the first four innings, and went 2 for 18 with runners in scoring position.

Ian Desmond led off the seventh with a double — his third hit — but was thrown out at home by third baseman Josh Donaldson on a grounder by Beltre. Desmond hesitated before breaking and said he was not necessarily running on contact.

“If he hits a line drive and I’m going on contact, it’s a double play,” Desmond said. “It was kind of a judgment call; you read it. If he comes up charging, I’m out by 10 feet if he decides to go home. When he stayed back, I was like, ‘Yeah, I got it.’ And he decided to throw home.”

Replay confirmed that Desmond was out, but the Rangers — as usual — had more chances. With two out and two on, Lucroy popped out foul against Jason Grilli, ending that threat.

Francisco Liriano replaced Grilli to start the eighth, but left when Carlos Gomez lined a single that caromed off the back of Liriano’s head. Liriano stayed upright but left the game and was taken to a hospital for tests.

Gomez said he texted Liriano, his close friend and former Twins teammate, to check on his condition.

“You don’t want to hit anybody close to his face or in the head,” Gomez said. “Every time that you hit the opponent, no matter who it is, it’s scary. You feel like your heart’s going to come out of your chest.”

Gomez’s hit cut the deficit to 5-2, and Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons called for his closer, Roberto Osuna, who had left the wild-card game with shoulder trouble. Gibbons was asking him for a five-out save.

“Hey, you’ve got to put a stop to this, because it goes the other way and that game’s over,” Gibbons said he told Osuna. “And it was starting to go that way.”

Another run scored on a groundout, but Osuna survived, navigating a leadoff double by Beltre in the ninth.

It was the fifth victory in a row for the Blue Jays, who clinched a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season and now stand one victory from the A.L. Championship Series.

“We played a lot of meaningful games down the stretch, and it’s paying off for us,” Pillar said. “We know what it’s like to play must-win games. We were able to be successful in those, and we’re just riding that high right now.”

A version of this article appears in print on October 8, 2016, on Page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: Another Texas Star Tumbles From the Sky. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe